With the kitchen plans out of the way (see part 1 here), Gary and Shelly’s next step to renovating their Krisel-designed Palm Springs, California, home was under their noses—literally. It was time to tackle the floor: “When we got the house, the floor was a mixture of white ceramic tile with a tossed-flower motif and heavy dark brown carpet in the living room and bedrooms,” Gary says.
Gary and Shelly wanted to step right back into the midcentury modern design and use polished concrete for flooring, but this required a complete and total revamp. “We had to remove everything from the floor and out of the house. I mean everything,” Gary says. “This was particularly difficult since we were essentially living in the place while renovating. Sinks, cabinets, toilets, closet door tracks—everything had to come out.” Gary’s dad suffered a minor fracture of his left forearm, which slowed the work down, but they were able to stay on track and finish within their timeframe.
The couple’s second main piece of advice is to start with the house and the house’s design itself as inspiration and stay in that time period. “We had a good starting point to reference—our home was built by the Alexander Construction Company and designed by Krisel, so it was helpful to keep that in mind,” Gary says. “It narrowed our style to a particular era and design. Once we were in that period, we looked at books and archive photos, among them Atomic Ranch books, some covering Julius Shulman’s work in Palm Springs.”
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this amazing Krisel home when our hard-at-work homeowners finally hit a wall.
